Congressional Panels, Report In Hand, Are Ready To Act

WASHINGTON — The release of the presidential commission's report on the Challenger accident today will start a flurry of activity by congressional committees with an interest in space policy.

Various committees, each with its own set of priorities, are set to review the commission's findings, to ponder the costs of enacting its recommendations and to renew debate on paying for a replacement shuttle.

At the same time, a House-Senate budget conference will try to reach a compromise on a fiscal 1987 budget for the space agency, expected to be between $6.8 billion and $7.3 billion, and another conference will consider an appropriations measure that could add $526 million to NASA's 1986 budget.

The commission recommendations could put added strain on a budget debate already complicated by the new balanced budget law. Will NASA be forced to divert scarce resources from other programs to follow the recommendations? Or will additional money be provided?

The commission is expected to recommend a redesign of booster rocket joints, a reorganization of the agency's bureaucracy and a greater reliance on conventional rockets.

Congress, to some degree, will have to look for cues from the Reagan administration, which has yet to announce public positions on many important space issues.

It is still unclear, though, which government entity or entities will take the lead in enacting what the commission suggests once the panel has disbanded.

One thing is certain. NASA no longer will enjoy its special status on Capitol Hill. Stung by criticism that lax oversight contributed to NASA's decline, committees are expected to take an aggressively vigilant approach in their dealings with the space agency.

''There will be a new attitude toward NASA,'' said Sen. Albert Gore Jr., D-Tenn., ''No longer will NASA be given the benefit of the doubt.''

This new skepticism was much in evidence during the Senate confirmation hearings of NASA administrator James Fletcher, who was sworn in May 12.

''NASA is at the crossroads right now,'' said Rep. Edward Boland, D- Mass., chairman of an appropriations subcommittee that approves NASA's budget.

Boland has said that his subcommittee may withhold funds for new NASA programs if the agency does not reorganize its bureaucratic structure. He said he remains open to requests that would pay for the commission's recommendations,but it might be necessary for NASA to finance commission recommendations and a fourth orbiter from the agency's present budget.

The first order of business in Congress will be to review the commission's findings and to question its members.

Commission chairman William Rogers is scheduled to meet Tuesday with the House Science and Technology Committee and with the Senate subcommittee on space, said Rep. Robert Roe, D-N.J., and Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash.

Friday, Roe led a committee delegation to Kennedy Space Center to inspect Challenger debris and to get a briefing on the accident.

Roe will chair the science committee hearings on the accident. To avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, Rep. Don Fuqua, D-Altha, has excused himself. After his retirement from Congress next year, Fuqua is to become president of the Aerospace Industries Association.

President Reagan appointed the Challenger commission Feb. 3 and ordered it to issue a report by June 6. Gorton, chairman of the space subcommittee, and Fuqua agreed not to hold hearings on the accident until the commission completed its report.

Dissatisfied with this arrangement, some Senate Democrats, notably Ernest Hollings of South Carolina, criticized the commission in its early days.But the commission's thoroughness and its forthrightness in rebuking the space agency silenced the early critics.

Influential lawmakers generally praised the commission, even before seeing its report, encouraging speculation that commission recommendations might serve as a guide to congressional committees.

''The commission recommendations will be given great weight,'' said Rep. Bill Nelson, D-Melbourne, chairman of the House space subcommittee who flew aboard the shuttle Columbia in January. ''But the committee will draw its own conclusions.''

While the commission has been in the lead, various committees and lawmakers have responded to information brought forward at the commission's public hearings.

For example, when the commission concluded that Morton Thiokol Inc., the manufacturer of the shuttle's booster rockets, had demoted engineers who objected to launching Challenger in cold weather, congressional protests were loud and immediate.

Despite a reinstatement of those engineers and a management shakeup, more than 250 House members have urged NASA to open booster contracts to competitive bidding.

On another front, Gore has introduced legislation designed to strengthen quality control at the space agency.

For his part, Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts has expressed fears about an accident on shuttles carrying planetary probes powered by plutonium fuel cells.